Indeed, something happened on that mountain. Jesus’ transfiguration revealed more of his divine nature and showed his relationship with the holy prophets of old.
But something also happened to the disciples. They too were transfigured, transformed. Their hearts and minds were opened up to a deeper reality of Jesus’ incarnational identity: not just the everyday Jesus in the flesh, but Jesus who is fully divine. Perhaps the greater transfiguration—of mind and heart—was with these disciples. In a surprising way they saw another aspect of Jesus; they experienced God in their midst, through Jesus the Christ. They became more conscious of who Jesus really is.
That is the purpose and intent of praying the Ignatian Examen of Consciousness: to open up our hearts and minds to God’s active presence in our world. To see messy details of our world transfigured with the grandeur of God’s vision for creation.
—Fr. Glen Chun, S.J. is a campus ministry chaplain at Loyola University Chicago, IL, as well as the peripatetic minister of the Loyola University Jesuit community.